Childs chairing RunCK group

The Defiance Running Club, following the WAMBO River Run in August of 2017 (WAMBO River Run)

Always an advocate for healthy living and fitness, Wallaceburg’s Mark Childs has taken on a new task this year.

Mark Childs

Childs was recently named as the chair of the RunCK committee, which is essentially the governing body for all of the races held in the Chatham-Kent area.

“There is no hard pressed rules and regulations that everybody has to follow but we try to keep the races somewhat similar and keep everybody more or less on the same page information wise,” Childs told the Sydenham Current.

“The race coordinators keep in touch with one another through RunCK.”

Childs said the Defiance Running Club, which he helped start, is helping him manage the organization.

“I might have been announced as the chair of RunCK, but it is with the help of the Defiance executive,” he said.

The Defiance Running Club has three runs in the series this year, including the annual Jingle All The Way Run in December, the WAMBO River Run in August and new this year, the Shamrocks and Shenanigans Run being held in March. Watch for a story about the new run on the Sydenham Current.

Childs said he wants to continue working hard to achieve their goal of having a higher number of races.

“Especially with the size of this community… our race numbers rival the race numbers in Windsor or London as far as the number of events,” he said.

“We are just trying to make sure that we don’t oversaturate the market, but at the same time present quality runs at all of our races.”

Each race in the series is its own entity and they are all listed on the RunCK website. http://www.runck.ca/

“We are always happy for volunteers at all our races… so if you are a runner or maybe someday want to be a runner but just started out, volunteering is a great way to go,” he said.

“People don’t think they can go in a race because they are just walking, but most of these races have run/walk options. The higher races like the 10k and the 1/2 marathons don’t tend to offer walk options but most of the 5K events are run/walk options.”

Childs said he is hoping to see some local support at the runs.

“Everybody is looking for something new, challenging,” he said.

“So we have done Detroit and the Niagara. There is a lot of big races out there that everybody should experience once in their life and that doesn’t mean you can’t fit all these other races in.”

Childs said each run in the series has an organization behind them that is trying to raise funds and support the community.

“We are not looking for everybody to do every race but if everybody out there that is running could participate in three or four RunCK events, it goes to help out our community,” he said.